The Picture of Tina CohenChang
by northerlywind
Summary: They were both different when they first met. Probable one-shot.


The picture of Tina Cohen-Chang

**Long-winded A/N that no one needs to read: **I tried to write this, though in a third person P.O.V., in Tina's character and more specifically in the character of a middle school teenager. This takes place in around the eighth grade. I also tried to alter their characters and wind back the clock a bit so that it would be evident that they were more developed, strong, etc. by the time they go into Glee club. So here they are, a bit or a lot different than the way they were before. After this, they all changed a lot, whether for better or for worse. In this story I drew on my own middle school/high school years. I also tried to parody the typical high school setting in pop culture (Mean Girls et al.).

Enjoy and please review!

* * *

Tina frowned to herself, glancing at a sheet of paper she clutched in her hand as she made her way to her classroom. She was early - way early. Her dad had dropped her off a long time before class was supposed to start because he had to go to work - plus he believed in cultivating good work habits, whatever that was supposed to mean. It didn't make much sense to Tina because she hated being early to things. It meant she would be standing by herself for a while and being bored, lonely, all that fun stuff. Plus she wasn't going to work for a long time anyway so she didn't see why it mattered so much.

She peered into her classroom cautiously, books and pencil case held to her chest protectively. She was wearing a sweater vest over a white blouse and a skirt that still bore the crest of the all girls catholic school she attended in Ohio. It was weird because most girls now were wearing short skirts or shorts, not these knee length polyester pleated things, but whatever. On the edge dangled a few safety pins that she got in her dad's office. Tina had to go to his work a lot and she had been playing around with the things. It looked cool so she left it there and her dad gave her funny looks but didn't say anything about it.

Anyway, she looked inside the room and saw a teacher moving some papers around on the desk. Tina stepped inside shyly and the teacher (a woman around her 30s-40s) looked up. The teacher smiled at her and told her to come in so Tina did. Then the teacher went away to make some photocopies or something and Tina was left alone. She looked around slowly, spinning around. Then she walked to a desk in the middle of the room and slid her things out of her arms. Tina sat down carefully for a little bit then got bored and walked around to look at stuff again. She was staring at something random, when she realized there was someone else in her vision. It was a boy in a wheelchair sitting at a desk and Tina had been staring at him accidentally. She flushed with embarrassment but saw that it was an guy with brownish longish hair and really thick glasses. He was also wearing some really formal clothes.

His cheek was leaning on his hand like he was really bored but his blue eyes were really wide, pretty intensely watching her. Tina swallowed and tried to smile shyly before ducking her head. She was pretending to look at other stuff when the teacher came back, thankfully. The teacher started asking Tina some questions about her life and other things. Then she introduced the wheelchair boy as Artie. She just nodded and avoided his gaze, feeling really embarrassed and shy.

Finally the bell rang. Lots of students came streaming into the class, one of which was a group of four girls. Two were blonde, one was Mexican or Spanish or something, and the last had brown hair. She also had a weird sweater with a unicorn and a giant gold star pinned to it. This girl came up to Tina's desk and told her to move because that was always her seat. Tina didn't understand and was kind of confused given it was only the first day, but she gathered her things again. She awkwardly stood to the side, looking for another seat.

She gulped nervously, looking between a group of loud boys making bad jokes who were also shouting at the girls, and the wheelchair boy from before. Crap, what was his name again? Tina already forgot. She looked at the boys for a very long time before some other boy joined them, sitting in the seat she had been contemplating. She chewed her lip, then took a deep breath, dumping her books on the empty desk opposite the wheelchair boy. By this time the class had quieted down by the teacher's command, so when Tina scraped the chair back it was louder than usual.

She winced, and her face went red as everyone's heads turned to stare at the new kid. Eventually people, whispering a little, went back to normal as the teacher handed out some sheets. Tina took the page from the teacher and looked at the first line. Find a partner. She probably went a little pale at that point and she thought she might have wanted to run away but instead she took deep breaths, gripping the edge of the desk tightly. She took her black hair out of her ponytail so that no one could see her face properly. Tina stared at the page some more and then turned to the wheelchair boy who wasn't staring at her anymore - thank goodness - but was instead scanning the sheet as well, adjusting his glasses with the back of his hand. Oh no. Conversation time. She sat on her hands and fidgeted, twisting in her chair to look for the teacher, who had gone to reprimand the rowdy boys.

Tina sighed to herself, sliding the page around on the desk. She looked up to see the boy staring at her intently again. She shifted, really uncomfortable by his stare. She gulped, wanting to ask why on earth he was doing that but... he already probably heard her stupid stutter but... still.

Thankfully he spoke first.

"You don't have to sit with me. I'm sure Quinn bee and company would be delighted to take you under their wing." Tina flinched from the sarcasm and layer of resentment in the boy's voice. Why was he being so rude and mean? What could she say to that?

"I- I w-w-want to s-s-s-sit here" she murmured quietly, the words trailing off quickly to nothingness.

He just snorted in disbelief, and they sat there awkwardly in silence for a full minute.

Then the teacher announced they'd go around the room and have everyone talk about their partner. She let the brown-haired girl, Rachel go first to talk about one of the blonde girls, Quinn.

Tina dreaded the moment the teacher would say- "How about you next, Tina?'

Oh no.

Upon the teacher's encouragement, she slowly stood up.

"I..."

"So, what's your partner's name?" the teacher interjected helpfully.

Crap. Crapcrapcrap. "Ummmmmmmmm..." She looked around helplessly, some of the students snickering under their breaths. "Th-this is... h-harvey." The students started to laugh louder. Tina began to sink in her seat and heard a sharp whisper.

She looked with wide eyes to the wheelchair boy who was smirking at her and mouthing 'Artie'.

Oh.

Tina fell into her seat at that point and refused to say anything else after that, to loud bouts of laughter.

The bell rang before _Artie _had a chance to have his turn, thank goodness. Everyone dashed out of their seats with lightning speed, leaving Tina with Artie and the teacher, who said she'd be back soon. Tina packed her things quietly, then went to pick up her lunch from the back of the classroom. She looked at Artie again and saw he was doing one of those cool things where he was leaning only on his back wheels. Kind of like a wheelie for a bike except the other way around. It only lasted for a second before his hands slipped and the wheelchair came back to the ground. Tina saw him look at her with a scowl and quickly turned away.

"What are you still doing here?" he demanded.

Tina shrugged.

"You should hurry up and get to the caf. I'm sure the 'bees are just waiting to get started," he said casually but always with that undertone of malice.

Why did he hate them so much? They seemed kinda nice if a little annoying.

"I d-dunno wh-wh-where it is-s," she admittedly quietly.

"Yeah well If you expect me to be your tour guide that's not gonna happen," he said, adding, "I eat here."

"Oh." She swayed on her feet uncertainly, then decided she'd just leave now and figure it out later. Right before Tina got to the door, she heard a long sigh then:

"Go right. Past two hallways, puke green door on the left."

She stopped, spinning around, but Artie had already turned away.

"Th-thanks," she said timidly, then fled out the door. Before leaving, she turned to look back and even from this distance she could tell he looked sad.

She couldn't figure it out, so she just ran away.

As per Artie's directions she arrived at the ugly double doors and peeked in to the plethora of junior high students chatting and things. She stood there, utterly confused, until she heard her name.

Really relieved, she turned to see the niceish blonde Quinn from class waving madly at her.

Then she heard it again. "Christina!"

She stopped short, her half-smile fading rapidly.

Then she realized they were still looking straight at her. She looked around and pointed to herself, eliciting a frantic nod from Quinn.

She made her way over. "Hey Christina!"

"M-my name isn't-" she started nervously.

"We know," interrupted the Mexican-ish girl Santana, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but, like, Tina is such a Polly Pocket name," said the other blonde, Britney.

"Kay, Christie," said blonde Quinn decidedly. "Sit down."

She did so obediently, beside the brown-haired Rachel. Opposite them were the other two Santana and Brittany/Britney/whatever, then Quinn was at the head of the table.

"We made you a placard so this is, like, your reserved spot now. Kay?" said Quinn.

Tina looked around - lo and behold each girl had a small placard with their name: Rachel with a gold star for the a, Brytni (?), Q in really flowery doodle-handwriting, and Santana in purple.

"Berry, pass it."

The Rachel girl obligingly handed over a piece of card-stock that had something scribbled out furiously on the other side and Christie on the other written in bubble letters.

Tina daren't ask whom she had replaced.

"So yeah, like, welcome and stuff," said Quinn generously, smiling a genuine smile-ish at her. Santana had a kind of witch-with-a-b smirk on her face, Brittany or whatever it was spelled looked kind of confused and dazed, then Rachel was just flatly staring at the table.

Tina put her brown paper bag on the table but Santana made a face. "Ew, are you actually going to eat?"

She stuttered in reply nervously.

"The only one that eats around here is Berry and - well-" Santana looked Rachel up and down (or at least to the edge of the table). Tina looked at her peanut butter and jam sandwich wistfully.

"I mean, whatever, you can like eat if you want but we have to talk, like now," said Quinn.

"So we saw you were sitting by yourself with Lightning McQueen," said Brittany/whatever.

Tina looked confused so Santana explained, "Cars." It didn't help her understanding but she nodded still.

"You totally don't have to sit with that loser," said Quinn, but Tina saw she looked a little uncomfortable and her eyes were kind of wandering.

"N-n-n-no, it's okay," said Tina quickly.

"No." said Quinn, putting her manicured hands on the table. "I've come to an executive decision. Berry, you're out and Christie, you're in."

Tina heard a gasp. "That's not fair," said Rachel, throwing back her hair and stamping her foot.

"Jesus Christ," muttered Santana.

"Berry, what I've said is Law," Quinn stated smugly.

"N-n-n-n-no!" said Tina, shaking her head and feeling guilty. "You d-don't have to-"

"Decisions are final, Christie." Then Quinn gave her a Look.

Tina nodded mutely in compliance.

After lunch, she pretended to forget, but Quinn took her by the arms and led her to their table. Tina sat there guiltily for the rest of the day, and tried not to feel the disappointed gaze from Artie, or the furious glare from Rachel.

* * *

The next day, Tina came early again, but wandered around the bathroom, washing her hands slowly to avoid meeting Artie alone again. She was drying her hands when Quinn & the Seasons came striding in.

"Oh my gosh, so glad I caught you!" said Quinn delightedly.

"Oh, um, h-hi," said Tina softly.

"Here. This is for you, Christie," said Brittany, offering her a bottle of something.

Tina eyed it warily, taking it as Brittany talked about Christie cookies.

"Hair dye. Blue." said Santana matter-of-factly.

Tina's eyes widened and she stared at the girls with surprise. No. She couldn't. They wouldn't force her, would they? They didn't seem intimidating or threatening now, but she never knew.

"It will look totally hot on you, trust," said Quinn. "See ya in class!"

They then marched to the mirror.

"I d-don't know how to-" she starts, really confused and lost at this point.

Quinn spins around. "That's fine. We'll come over to your place on Sunday. 10 AM."

Tina hastily made her exit, not bothering to ask how they clearly seemed to know where she lived.

During class, they were given a small lesson about haikus and things, then instructed to make their own.

Santana groaned. "This is so lame," she sniped. "I hate poetry."

Tina just shrugged, scribbling something on a scrap piece of paper. She wrote probably at least five of them by the time the teacher told them to stop and exchange them to read. Suddenly she felt very subconscious, but gave her paper to Brittany who probably wouldn't understand them anyway.

"What's a blue rose?" whispered Brittany to Santana who just rolled her eyes and shrugged.

Tina looked at Brittany's poem. Roses are red, violets are blue / I really love someone / I think you should too! She puzzled over it, laughing to herself at the the wrong number of syllables per line, but still dreading the moment the teacher would make them read it aloud.

Of course, that was exactly what the teacher did a half minute later. "Who wants to go first?" Tina looked around and only Rachel's hand was up. She was almost standing on her seat. Santana whispered something mean which Tina couldn't hear as the teacher called on, obviously, Rachel.

She cleared her throat, "I am a gold star-"

"Rachel, is that your poem?" questioned the teacher. "You're supposed to read out your partner's poem."

Rachel sighed with exasperation. "Fine, then you read it," she said, shoving the paper to Artie.

Tina watched him curiously, trying to pretend at the same time that she wasn't. He was wearing almost the same thing as yesterday except for a different coloured button-up shirt. Otherwise, he looked exactly the same. Tina looked down at her own clothing self-consciously, which was the same skirt but with a purple tank top and black leather jacket. She thought she looked kinda cool in the morning but now she feels really... thug/biker/gang-like and really stupid too. Tina tuned into reality as Artie took he paper from Rachel.

Adjusting his glasses (he almost always seemed to be doing that), he cleared his throat and read, "I am a gold star / Shining a beacon of light / Watch me soar and soar." While the unoriginal subject matter made Tina groan, and it was a really bad haiku overall, she was also kind of distracted by his voice. She shook her head a little to clear it, holding a hand over her mouth to hide the fact that she was kind of laughing too.

Artie put the poem down as the class clapped half-heartedly. He met her eye and for the first time smiled, actually. It was a small one and he wasn't showing his teeth but it felt nice and kind of right for him to be smiling. At least that was what she told herself when she turned away feeling kind of happier. Then she remembered the blue hair dye in her bag and her small smile instantly faded.

The teacher then asked Artie to read his and Tina couldn't help but feel really eager to hear it. It went, "The empty hallway / Is lost and filled with darkness / I can't seem to breathe" It sounded wrong the way Rachel said it, and it wasn't Shakespeare and Tina couldn't really understand it all the way but she liked it. The class was overall kind of surprised and they forgot to clap or maybe they were just being mean but the silence seemed to stretch on for a long time before the teacher called on the next person.

* * *

The rest of the week was kind of weird but not so very different, and Tina dreaded each day that led up to Sunday. On Saturday her dad took her to the main square/downtown-thing and they walked around the streets, checking out the shops and things. She peered into a record store that was closed and a music store that was open but didn't have much and all sorts of things. They didn't buy anything, just walked around a lot until Tina saw an ice cream parlour/shop. She ran to it and looked through a window. It was open and she was just about to run inside when she did a double take. There was Quinn and there was Artie. Except, they were sitting together and laughing and eating ice cream and being happy. Tina stared at them with complete surprise written over her face. They didn't see her so she quickly stepped back, really confused, and told her dad she didn't want ice cream after all.

She almost forgot about it until the next day when Quinn and the rest showed up at her doorstep. Tina was only dressed in blue pajama pants (she totally forgot about that, too, or maybe she was just hoping if she ignored it, it wouldn't happen). She was alone, her parents off in some business trip, so the girls came in, fawning over her things. Then they moved to the basement where Quinn prepared the hair dye.

"Oh," said Tina, remembering. "I saw you and Artie talking yesterday." She immediately regretted the words as everyone froze. No one realized she hadn't stuttered.

Quinn was the first to recover, and she said lightly, "Well duh I was trying to get him to do our stupid English homework."

"I thought you said we weren't allowed to make him do our homework," protested Brittany.

"Yeah, but like I was seeing if he'd be any good at it. I think he made the answers bad on purpose because I looked at it later and I would've gotten, like, a D."

Tina kept her mouth shut but received a scathing glare later on.

She cried in pain as the dye seemed to burn her head.

"It's only temporary," muttered Satana - erm, Santana - as Tina said, "ow ow ow ow ow"

They left afterwards and Tina stared at herself in the mirror. It was darker than she expected but still.

It was BLUE.

* * *

On Monday, Tina was at her locker when she heard a really loud gasp, like someone dunked in a pool of ice water. She wasn't far from the truth, as she turned to see Rachel soaked in a blue slushie thing. Tina stared at the spectacle with really wide eyes as everyone started to laugh. She turned back to her locker and found herself face-to-face to no-longer-smiling Quinn. "If you are ever going to ruin my reputation again, that is what will happen to you. Consider this strike one."

In class everyone stared at her blue hair. She didn't receive any insults or compliments, yet. Throughout the lesson, Tina thought about what her parents would think and by the end she had worked herself into a near-hysteria. As the bell rang, she fled to the bathroom with a pounding heart and watering eyes. She threw herself into the room and turned on the tap with cold water, trying to dip her hair in and drain it. True to her suspicions, it wasn't temporary. She began to cry as she frantically tried to scrub the colour out of her hair.

Suddenly the door opened on its own. Tina wasn't paying much attention but still she jumped, trying to hide her sobs. She heard the sound of not-walking and realized who it was.

Oh, great.

"Um, why are you in the handicapped bathroom?"

Crap. Really? Tina could have bashed her head in the wall for her own stupidity if she wasn't crying so much.

"Are you okay?"

Without looking at him, Tina went and grabbed fistfuls of paper towel, drying to dab at her eyes and clean her face, still hiccoughing.

"What's wrong?"

Tina went to get more paper towel. "Ow!" she cried, sobbing some more as she jumped back with a throbbing shin.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

Then she started to laugh with the utter absurdity of it all, realizing this was probably their first proper conversation. Her shin hurt, her eyes were red, but she laughed. Then reality came crashing down again and Tina started sobbing once more.

"Seriously, Tina, calm down. Take deep breaths. What's wrong?"

Tina perked up at the mention of her name and then completely unloaded. "Quinn - and th-th-th-the others, it's j-j-j-just all t-t-too m-m-much, and I c-c-c-c-" She took a deep breath, trying to hold down the power of her stutter and shaking voice at once. "I c-can't h-handle it anym-more, and n-n-n-ow th-this h-h-hair!" She did a weird kind of wailing sound then started to sob again.

"It's nice, I like it-" said Artie quietly.

"And th-th-then my p-p-p-p-parents are g-going to k-kill m-me! And I'll b-be d-dead all b-because of s-s-st-stupid Q-Quinn and h-h-her p-posse and it's b-blue, m-my h-hair is BLUE!" Tina threw her hands up as she began to sob in earnest again, sinking down to the floor (which would usually be pretty gross but the bathroom was actually clean and shiny). She put her head in her hands (the BLUE hair covering her face didn't help) and just cried. She really didn't know why she was so upset but she hated the hair and hated Quinn and hated that they made her do it and hated that her parents would disapprove and hated that they would be mad at her even though it wasn't even her fault-

Tina heard the sounds of the wheelchair approaching. "On the bright side, I think you'll fit in with the Smurfs nicely," he offered.

Tina laughed shakily. "I've n-never w-watched that movie or wh-whatever it is, TV sh-show," she said, her stutter almost disappearing.

"Me neither," admitted Artie, and Tina looked up to see he was smiling brightly and laughing like she saw he had been in the ice cream parlour. "I just know there are little blue people or something, my sister watched it once before I think."

"W-who c-came up with th-that, blue people. It's really cr-creepy," said Tina, laughing again. She shuddered suddenly, the water dripping down her back really uncomfortably.

"Are you cold?"

"N-no, I'm okay-"

"Then you are. It's the people that protest things the most that actually need them the most. Or something. My dad said that. "

Even though it didn't really make much sense, Tina shivered and just nodded.

They kind of stayed there awkwardly for a bit as they tried to figure out what to do. Finally Artie reached for a soft blue towel he had in the bag hanging onto the handles of his wheelchair and Tina took off her leather jacket (the water was going to ruin it, and it was her mom's!). Then she wiped the dripping mess off her shoulders and back, even though her t-shirt inside was still kind of soaked at the back. She was definitely not taking her t-shirt off anyway, but she dried her hair off too. Yep, definitely permanent.

Tina rubbed at her shin ("Are you okay?" "Y-y-yeah, I'm f-fine"), then got up slowly. She clutched the bundle of towel in her hand ("I'll wash it and give it back tomorrow, provided I'm not dead") and took deep, ragged breaths.

"Thanks," she said, looking around awkwardly now.

"No problem-"

"And I'm s-sorry about..." Tina stopped. What was she sorry for? She didn't know. She was just sorry, was all, and she sneaked a glance at Artie who was smiling sadly.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't giving you a chance or something so it's my fault for being an insolent asshole."

She winced at this. "D-don't s-say that," she said, hugging her arms around herself, towel still bunched in a hand.

Now he wasn't looking at her anymore. She felt uncomfortable. She had no idea what to say besides that and she wanted to be good, she wanted to be nice because he was but - she didn't know what to say.

"Bitter cripple, haven't heard that one before," he muttered to himself, his hands over his wheels and running them back and forth over the tires.

She just stood there, lost for words.

"Sorry, doing it again - guess this is why I don't have friends, eh?" he said, looking at her again.

She looked at her shoes, digging a toe into the floor. Before Tina could say anything else, the bell rang, startling them both.

"Time to go and pretend this never happened then," he said pointedly. "Have fun, with- well. Anyway."

The door swung open slowly for a few very painful, agonizing seconds, before Tina made up her mind.

"Wait," she said, putting a hand on his wheelchair. She shuddered a little when she did so; it was cold, and so unhuman.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"Let's skip the rest of the day."


End file.
